Consumer durables discover a new snag
Consumer durable manufacturers say that the technicians are undercutting the very brands for whom they are working.
MUMBAI: They are supposed to be troubleshooters, but increasingly the technicians are turning trouble-makers for consumer durable manufacturers. Consumer durable manufacturers say that the technicians are undercutting the very brands for whom they are working.
While visiting customer premises to fix gadgets, technicians prefer to supply low-priced, me-too spare parts rather than originals and pocket the commission. Technicians dissuade customers from signing annual maintenance contracts but at the same time sell their own cheaper break/fix arrangement to the customer on an individual basis.
It is an issue faced by all companies including LG, Whirlpool, Samsung, Onida, to direct selling water purifier companies like Eureka Forbes. Several priority dealers of handset brands say a Nokia also stock up counterfeits at half the OE price.
“We have to stock it since consumers ask for the same” said a leading Nokia priority dealer in Mumbai. Officially, these dealers are expected to stock only the OEs. Consequently, a genuine product seeker is worried about paying an original product’s price for a fake.
Leading industry officials call this `slow brand-poisoning’ where the company is generally unaware of the damage done until it hits sales.
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“Good brands go to the salesmen and ensure that there is personal interaction and better customer interface. For the consumer today, after the point of sales, the technician is the brand ambassador. I feel it has a lot to do with employee motivation and benefits offered by the franchisee. We ensure that the technicians employed by our franchisees are paid standard salaries. As an employer, if you take care of your employee, you have a happy brand ambassador for your brand. Additionally, we are plugging loopholes like offering spare parts packed with a hologram and offering call centre service where the calls can be logged and monitored” said Mr S K Palekar, senior vice-president, marketing of Eureka Forbes.Unlike developed markets where customers have to 'carry-in’ their product to showrooms for repairs and labour costs are high, India comparatively offers extraordinary service given the relatively lower manpower costs. However, underpaid employees tend to see easy revenues by offering personal services to the value-seeking and bargaining Indian consumer. On their part, are tackling thinning margins given the rising advertising budgets in a cluttered market.
“It is an issue of culture orientation. Company managements should be looking for the bad news first and ensuring that they have access to customer complaints. That seems a tough call when customers have basic problems even reaching out to the service centres mentioned or even talking to the manager of the outlet, said senior industry consultant K S Raman.
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